Life, Liberty, and the Persuit of Hockey
by i-like-gnomes
Summary: Four of your favorite ducks are placed on team USA for the Goodwill Games. There they join the ranks of some of the other top players in the nation as new friendships form.
1. Shower Races and Tickle Torture

Hay guys and gals! This is my first fan fiction so no flames please, but constructive criticism is welcomed with open arms!

Thanks!

-gnomes

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the original characters and the plot line.

**Shower Races and Tickle Torture**

Dean Portman, Charlie Conway, Adam Banks, and Dwayne Robertson stepped off the crowded airplane after a long flight to Toronto. They glanced around the room for about thirty seconds before Dwayne's eyes found the familiar face of a smiling Mr. Tibbles. Mr. Tibbles appeared to be over excited due to the frantic waving and the fact that he was smiling like a madman. He even went so far as to stand on an unoccupied chair and shout each of their names causing much embarrassment on behalf of the young men who were now refusing to acknowledge Mr. Tibbles. Once the crowd died down, Mr. Tibbles rushed over to greet the boys, nearly trampling a five year old in the process.

"Oh! I haven't seen y'all in ages! Look how big you've grown!" exclaimed the middle aged man now taking the part of the crazy grandmother that one never sees (for an excellent reason).

The teenagers simply nodded and excepted the fact that they could do nothing to avoid further embarrassment. Mr. Tibbles just seemed to not realize how embarrassing he could really be!

They all exchanged greeting before being ushered out of the airport and into a SUV, which was unfortunately driven by a one Mr. Tibbles. While Mr. Tibbles was loading the baggages into the car with the help of airport personnel, Dean, Charlie, Adam, and Dwayne played a quick game of "rock, paper, scissors" in order to decide who was stuck sitting in the passenger seat and enduring a seemingly long ride of listening to Mr. Tibbles talk. Charlie lost. Dean and Adam insisted the much shorter Dwayne sit in the middle with Dean stating that one, in fact, "always puts the smallest person in the middle, because they're the funnest to smash when you go around turns!"

"Damn my feet hurt!" exclaimed Nolan Holden as he and the rest of team USA walked back to their residence hall.

"My whole body hurts!" countered his best friend Meredith Daley.

Team USA of the Goodwill Games had just finished their first conditioning practice where they ran two miles before doing a variety of strength training for muscles they didn't even know they had.

As the team rounded the corner they spotted a SUV pulling into the driveway of the team USA residence house. They watched as four guys and Mr. Tibbles hopped out. One appeared to be ready to cut his own ears off and the team assumed that he had been forced to sit with Mr. Tibbles on the ride there. Another looked annoyed and was rolling his eyes at the larger one that was almost giddy. The final one was rubbing his sides and was standing as far away from the large one as possible.

"Howdy y'all!" greeted Mr. Tibbles. "These here are your new teammates from team USA a few years ago! This'un here," he gestured to the annoyed one, "is Adam Banks one the greatest hockey players I've ever seen!"

Adam stepped forward and waved a little before thinking he must look stupid and quickly putting his hand down at his side.

"This'un is Dean Portman." Mr Tibbles waved his arm towards the large one. "He's one of the best enforcers in the states!"

Dean let out a low grunt that the team assumed meant 'hello'.

"This here is Charlie Conway, the captain and leader of the Eden Hall Mighty Ducks!" Mr. Tibbles exclaimed as he gave a little nudge to the one that still looked as though he was contemplating weather or not his ears were really that useful.

Charlie stepped forward and said an enthusiastic hello before stepping back into line.

"An' finally we got the greatest puck handler I've ever seen," he gestured toward the final person, "Dwayne Robertson!"

Dwayne let out a quick 'howdy y'all' before returning his attention to the ground.

"Boys this here's your team! I'll go through their names quick like and y'all can get to know them later. Let's see here, we got Nolan Holden, Brandon Rowan, Meredith Daley, Conner and Colton Snodgrass- I can never tell those two apart- Evan Cole, Victoria Burdette, Macayla- she goes by Mac- Jarret, and Jamison Allif."

At the mention of their names each player stepped forward and gave a small wave before rejoining the rest of the team.

"Well now that that's done, I best be off! Got stuff to do ya know!"exclaimed Mr. Tibbles before getting back into the SUV and speeding off.

The two groups stood there and stared at each other for a few minutes before Meredith looked around and shouted "I call girls shower!" and dashed into the house with the two other girls chasing after her, protesting. This spurred the guys into a race to see which three could get into the house the fastest and get to the designated "guy" showers first. The four ducks watched with amusement at the antics of their new teammates and knowing that tomorrow they'd be fighting for the chance to shower first as well.

Meredith, being the first one in the shower, was the first one out, after the first three guys of course. It seemed as though the guys simply got in the shower long enough to get wet and then got out. She was almost trampled by Mac who dashed into the bathroom before Victoria even noticed the door had began to open.

Meredith walked down the hall to the living area to find the four new guys talking with Brandon, Nolan, and Colton. She walked in very quietly and was only noticed by Adam and Colton who happened to be facing the door. She gave them the "shush" sign and they complied. Meredith snuck up behind Nolan, who was discussing the teams current strategy with Charlie, and let out a war cry before throwing herself on him. Nolan let out a yelp and began tickling Meredith without mercy.

"Stop it! Stop it! This isn't how this is supposed to be going! Nolan, if you don't stop right now I'm going to wet myself all over you!" Meredith screamed and threatened. But Nolan tickled on.

"Say it! Say it!" he demanded.

"No!" Meredith managed to squeak out in between her fits of laughter.

"Then I won't stop tickling you. I can do this all night long if I have to!"

"Fine! Fine! I'll say it! Nolan, I'll say it, just stop tickling me!" said Meredith finally giving in to his demand. She cleared her throat. "Nolan is the coolest, most greatest guy ever and did, in fact, kick my butt in one-on-one on January 13, 2006."

"Yes!" shouted Nolan as he ceased tickling Meredith and jumped up pumping his fist in the air. Meredith, who was on his lap fell to the ground with a loud "thump" and began mumbling something about how her butt would never be the same. Then it looked as though a brilliant idea crossed her mind as she jumped up and went to stand behind Dean who happened to be the biggest person in the room with Brandon at a close second.

Once Nolan finished his victory dance Meredith cleared her throat loudly to get everyones attention. Once all eyes were on her, she looked Nolan straight in the eyes and said "Not."

Immediately after the word had had a chance to sink in, Nolan walked over to stand in front of the couch that was Meredith's only line of defense, intent on getting her to take it back.

"Take it back! Take it back!"

"NEVER!"

"Take it back! I'm gonna tickle you until you take it back!"

The occupants of the couch slowly stood up and quietly exited the room.

"NEVER! I will not yield to the torture that is tickling!"

And with that Nolan dived over the now empty couch that separated the two and resumed the fierce tickling.

"Fine! I yield!" shouted Meredith after about seven minutes of ticklish torture. "Nolan is the coolest, most greatest guy ever and did, in fact, kick my butt in one-on-one on January 13, 2006. There I said it are you happy now and will you please get off of me. You're restricting my air intake."

"HA!" exclaimed Nolan as he began to do his victory dance for the second time in ten minutes.

Meredith's face twisted into an evil grin as she proclaimed, "When you least expect it, that's when you can expect it.", and walked out the door.

Hope y'all enjoyed it! Please Review! I can use all the help I can get!


	2. Food and Room Mates

Hay y'all! I'm back! Sorry for the wait, I had finals this week...

spikeyhairgood – thanks for the review! I'm glad you like it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the original characters and the plot line.

And on with the story!

**gnomes**

**Food and Room Mates**

At promptly six o'clock, the doorbell rang. Accompanying the annoying ringing was a chorus of "not me!" and "not getting it!". Conner told the Ducks that they'd better shout it too and quickly. So, with questioning looks, the four Ducks shouted out their own version of the ever so popular saying.

As soon as the words left Adam's mouth, Mac can running into the room. Everyone glanced up at her and motioned to the door.

"But I was on the phone!" she complained, but no one seemed to care.

"Rules are rules." said Evan, while carefully moving a pillow to cover his "package".

With an indignant 'huff' Mac went to answer the door. The rest of the team could here muffled voices and the shuffling of feet from downstairs. After a few moments of silence they heard the door close.

As if something had stung them all in the butt, everyone except the ducks (who had no clue what in the world was going on) sprung out of their seats and ran down the hall like a stampede.

"FOOD!" That one word informed the Ducks as to what was going on. They realized that if they didn't get going they'd be lucky if there was any food left. They exchanged looks and jumped of the couch and began running down the hall, pushing each other as they went.

By the time they had reached the kitchen, everyone else was already chowing down on the food that was delivered. Looking around, the Ducks noticed that there appeared to be about fifteen pizza boxes piled in various locations around the room.

"Help yourselves!" Jamison called out, apparently seeing the confused look on their faces. This statement was not needed in Portman's (he had requested that they not call him Dean earlier that day) case as he was already halfway through his second piece of pizza.

Later that night the Ducks were shown their living arrangements. Room mates were apparently determined by the position one played, after, of course, gender was taken into consideration. So, the three girls shared one room and one shower. The guys were divided into three rooms (a total of three showers).

The four offensive players (Adam, Charlie, Dwayne, and Nolan) shared the first room. When Nolan found out that three other people were about to move into the room, he quickly ran in before shutting the door. Adam, Charlie, and Dwayne could hear the sound of things being thrown around and suddenly the door opened, revealing a slightly clean room.

'Probably more clean than it was a minute ago...' thought Charlie.

The four defensive players (Jamison, Brandon, Portman, and Colton) also shared one room. Their room was relatively clean considering that 3 boys had been living in it for the past week and a half. By 'relatively clean', I mean that there was a partially clear path leading from the door to the center of the room, where it branched off into three smaller paths. Two of the paths led to two sets of bunk beds, and the third led to the bathroom door.

'Just like home...' thought Portman as a small smile appeared on his face.

After finally putting their stuff in their designated rooms, guys joined everyone else in the living room.

"Hey...Wait! If there's thirteen of us, and the three girls share a room, the four offensive players share another room, and the four defensive players share the other, then that's only eleven players! Where do Evan and Conner sleep?" said Adam as he sat there with a perplexed look on his face.

"Well, we're the goalies so we get our own room since we're the only two." explained Conner.

"Man! I knew I should have been a goalie!" exclaimed Portman.

"It's not that cool." started Evan, "When we first got here, there were maybe two or three of us that already knew each other, so we all started hanging out with our room mates. Conner and I were the only ones in the room so, while everyone else on the team was getting to know each other, we were stuck with only each other...and we did not get along! I believe there were some nights when Conner went to stay in Colton's room."

"OK, in my defense, you either wouldn't stop talking or you wouldn't talk at all. And when you did talk it was only about stick-side versus glove-side stopping techniques." stated Conner

"Yeah, well...um...you were really messy?" said Evan, not really sure of his comeback.

"No, that was you." declared Conner.

"Um...yeah, well...um...so where's everyone from?" asked Evan in a last ditch attempt to salvage some of his pride.

"Trying to change the subject, are we?" prodded Conner, knowing that he had won this argument.

"No, I'm just interested in where all our new team mates are from." lied Evan, knowing that he had definitely lost this argument.

"Uh-huh...yeah, sure."

"So where are y'all from?" interjected Dwayne before this could turn into another argument.

"I'm from the small town of Zenda, Kansas, where hockey is life!" said Evan, definitely eager to get off the past subject.

"Soldotna, Alaska." Victoria stated her hometown.

"I hail from Phoenix, Arizona." said Brandon.

"You _hail_ from...what the hell are you on? Anyways, Nolan and I were born and raised in New York, New York, the city that never sleeps! Wait, or is that Vegas?" Meredith exclaimed.

"It's New York, you idiot. Any who, I'm from Reno, Nevada." Mac managed to dis Meredith and tell her hometown in one breath.

"Reno, the wannabe Vegas! Wait, no, I'm not from Reno, I'm from Washington, Pennsylvania. I just did the wannabe thing to piss Mac off." declared Jamison.

"Washington, the wannabe...um...yeah...whatever!" was Mac's lame attempt at a comeback.

"Okay...Moving on from that incredibly horrible comeback, Conner and I are from Fairfax, Virginia." stated Colton. "Where are you guys from, again?"

"Well, Adam and I are from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dwayne's from Dallas Texas, and Portman's from Chicago, Illinois. But we all play for the Eden Hall Mighty Ducks." explained Charlie, who had assumed the role of introducer.

A moment of silence passed and the room was dead quiet, as though no one knew what to say now.

"So...um...are you guys rea-" started Victoria but she was interrupted by the shrill sound of the phone ringing.

"I'll get it!" exclaimed Brandon, eager to get away from the awkward silence that filled the room.

Once again the room collapsed into silence.

"So, as I was saying, are you guys ready fo-" Victoria tried again, but this time was interrupted by Brandon coming back into the room holding the cordless phone.

"Meredith, it's for you." he said as he tossed the phone at her. She caught it with no problem and got up and left the room.

Victoria waited a couple of seconds as if waiting for something else to interrupt her.

"Areyouguysreadyforpracticetomorrow?" she said said very quickly as though she was afraid that if she took her time, she wouldn't get the question out.

"Um...What?" asked Portman, thoroughly confused.

"Are you guys ready for practice tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I think we are." Charlie once again answered for the rest of them.

Well, that's it for now! Sorry it's so short, I've been busy and tomorrow's my birthday so I'm to excited to type! I'll try to update later, but I might not get to until after the New Year since I'm going home and all my story stuff is on my computer at school.

I hope y'all liked it! Please review!

Ta,

**gnomes**


	3. Morning Madness

**Sorry for the long wait! I just got back to school the other day...I hope all my readers had a totally sick Christmas and flippin awesome New Years!**

**Thanks to my reviewers:**

**Taryn Sparrow—I love Dwayne too! I think he's just the cutest little thing! Thanks for pointing out my mistake, I really had no clue where he was from but I guessed that it was either Dallas or Austin, so I just chose one...I guess I chose the wrong one! I tried to look up his hometown online but all it told me was that he was from Texas.**

**kiri—Thanks for the review! I'm glad you like the story!**

**nEwSiEsIsLiFe—I'm glad you like the story and I'm sorry it took me so long to update! Oh and thanks for wishing me a happy birthday!**

**Enjoy!!**

**-gnomes**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the original characters and the plot line.**

**CORRECTION!--In the last chapter I said that Dwayne was from Dallas, and it was recently brought to my attention that he's from Austin. Sorry for the screw up!**

**Morning Madness**

_"Are you guys ready for practice tomorrow?" _

_"Yeah, I think we are." Charlie once again answered for the rest of them._

It was a beautiful morning in Toronto. The birds were chirping, the sun had just began to rise, there was a slight mist of dew covering the ground, and the sound of four incredibly annoying alarm clocks was filling the Team USA boarding house. It was the crack of dawn and thirteen very sleepy teenagers were stumbling out of their beds. Let the madness begin!

Everyone was running around, half asleep, trying to get ready for their _very _early morning conditioning practice. Thirteen drowsy teenagers, running through a two story house, can lead to some mighty fine bruises and quite a few head on collisions (whether it be with an inanimate object or one another).

After Jamison practically fell down the steps, Meredith decided to play it safe (or just be extremely lazy) and slide down the steps on her rear, which an extremely slap happy Brandon found absolutely hilarious.

Dwayne was wondering around the house with one eye closed, swinging his lasso at anyone who passed and saying what sounded like "Don't you worry now mama, I'ma rope all these cows and put 'em away." Luckily for the rest of the team, his aim was off due to the fact that he was still half asleep.

Colton had been in the bathroom for about thirty minutes and Portman really had to pee. This led a very short tempered, tired, Portman to pick the lock to the bathroom, only to find Colton in the fetal position asleep on the bathroom rug.

Victoria fell asleep face first into her cereal while a groggy Conner flicked bits of his cereal at her in an attempt to amuse himself. After a few minutes of flicking, Conner grew tired of it and decided to just shove her face completely into the bowl. As though she had been shocked by lightening, Victoria was semi-awake and gave Conner the most evil look she could muster, which Conner took as his cue to run.

Nolan had spent the last fifteen minutes finding his other tennis shoe, which had mysteriously gone missing after his ten second cleaning spree the night before. Once he found it, he tried to put his shoe on while balancing on one foot and lifting his other foot into the air while trying to shove the shoe on. Needless to say, he was quite unsuccessful. After about five minutes of trying, Nolan had almost given up. However, Nolan has always been a stubborn man and once he has it set in his mind that he's going to do something one way, he will do it that way, even if it kills him. He balanced himself once again in yet another attempt to get his shoe on, when he was knocked over by Conner who was being chased by a milk covered Victoria. Taking it as a sign from God, Nolan stayed on the ground and put his shoe on.

Evan was quite proud of himself. He was the first one fully dressed and ready to go for the first time. Now he couldn't be blamed for making the entire team late (for once). Or so he thought...As he stepped into the kitchen to announce his early morning victory, his bubble was burst.

"DUDE! You're wearing my pants!"

Now, this comment would not have mattered at all to Evan if it had been said by one of the guys. However, much to his humiliation, it was Mac that had said it. He looked down slowly, dreading what he might see. To his horror, he found himself dressed in bright pink-clearly girls- basketball shorts. He flew back up the steps and back into his room like a bat out of hell.

Mac had worn her practice clothes to bed, in an attempt to sleep later. Her plan apparently worked too, as she rolled out of bed a good ten minutes after everyone else. As she stumbled into the kitchen in her almost comatose state, nothing could have prepared her for what she saw...Evan in her bright pink basketball shorts. In her utterly shocked state she managed to let him know that those were not, in fact, his pants. As the poor boy looked down she couldn't help but chuckle. When he bolted from the room, however, she burst out laughing for the pants said "hot stuff" on the butt.

Charlie was woken up by, what appeared to be, a dozen empty water bottles landing on his bed. His first thought was that the water had been dumped on him, but he ruled out that theory when he discovered that his bed was totally dry. He laid in bed perplexed for a few moments before he was hit smack dab in the face by a pair of socks (whether they were dirty or not, he couldn't tell). Charlie sat up and looked around the room to see Nolan halfway under his bed. Charlie tried to figure out what in the hell Nolan was doing and was answered when Nolan let out a victorious "YES!" and shimmied out from under the bed. Charlie took this as his cue to get his sluggish ass out of bed.

Adam took a seat at the kitchen table and watched the madness unfold.

**Yeah I know it's short but I figured I'd give you a little something to read since I've kept you waiting for an update for so long...Hope You liked it! I really liked writing this chapter, it was fun. Review please!!!**

**-gnomes**


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